In the wake of the police shooting of unarmed teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, there has been a lot of conflicting information. Conflicting information about Brown’s interaction with the police, conflicting information about subsequent riots as the St. Louis black community attempts to deal with its rage and frustration, and conflicting information about how long they left Brown’s body lying at the scene of the crime, his blood running down the street.

[This] focuses instead on the most incendiary comment anyone heard at the scene….The only cited source stating the phrase “kill the police” in the AP story is the St. Louis County Police Department. It’s transparently obvious why the police would want the press to know they heard this phrase. This rhetoric, in their minds, justifies the outrageous over-reaction of the police force, including snarling K-9 units and paramilitary vehicles. The cops want the public to know these words were shouted, and they were afraid for their own safety.

We need objective journalism. At the very least, we need both sides of the story.

Team Blackness also discussed the sad passing of Robin Williams and the crippling effects of depression.

The ripple effect from the incidents where police kill unarmed black men and women and children will last for a long time. I won’t forget, and I’m a middle-aged white woman. I grieve for the black and latino families who must worry when they welcome a newborn into this world. Will their sons and daughters ever be safe?

How many generations will have to pass for these families until they can feel as free as they have the right to? Slavery, and the criminal theft we have perpetrated on Native Americans are two of the worst atrocities that our nation committed in its early days. It is like a deadly poison in our groundwater.

I pray for Michael Brown’s family and friends that they may be comforted in their time of unimaginable loss. And even thought I’m not the praying sort, I’ll send up one for our country, as well.

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